Respiratory illnesses from COVID-19, flu, and other pathogens have been on the increase in many countries for weeks and this is expected to continue following the recent holidays, said Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebr
Day: January 6, 2024
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday for an unspecified medical matter, the Pentagon said late Friday, without detailing why he was being treated or why it kept his hospital stay secret all week.
Austin, who is 70, sits just below President Joe Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, and his duties require him being available at a moment’s notice to respond to any manner of national security crises.
The Pentagon did not say whether Austin ever lost consciousness before or after he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1, or the extent to which his duties were assumed by his deputy, Kathleen Hicks.
Those duties include being ready and available to respond to an incoming nuclear attack.
The Pentagon said Austin suffered “complications following a recent elective medical procedure,” but declined to say what that procedure was or what complications he suffered.
“He is recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today,” Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement Friday.
Just a day earlier, Ryder held a televised news briefing that conveyed the sense of business as usual at the Pentagon, offering Austin’s condolences to ally Japan following its New Year’s Day earthquake, for example.
But the past week has been anything but normal for the Pentagon, with U.S. troops in the Middle East wrestling with the regional fallout from the unfolding Israel-Hamas war and carrying out a U.S. retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday.
The Pentagon Press Association, in a letter to Pentagon officials, criticized the Defense Department’s secrecy, saying that Austin was a public figure who had no claim to medical privacy in such a situation.
“At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader,” it wrote.
Reuters correspondent Phil Stewart is a member of the association’s board of directors.
The Pentagon Press Association letter noted that even U.S. presidents disclose when they must delegate duties due to medical procedures.
The way the Defense Department handled Austin’s hospitalization stands in contrast to how the State Department dealt with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s prostate surgery on Dec. 15, 2003.
The State Department spokesperson at that time issued a statement in the morning making public that Powell, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and would remain there for several days before returning home.
It also said Powell would be on a reduced schedule while he recovered from the operation. The State Department’s spokesperson at the time, Richard Boucher, then offered details on Powell’s surgery in his daily briefing.
Boucher, contacted by Reuters on Friday, said the key question regarding public disclosure was whether Austin was under anesthesia or was incapacitated.
“Was there any moment in the process where he could not function as secretary of defense?” he asked. “If you are up and walking around and have your information and you have your aides in the next room and you can make split-second decisions . . . then there is probably not a public necessity to disclose.
“The only necessity is if you are going to be conked out,” he added.
The Pentagon has not yet answered that question.
WASHINGTON — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been hospitalized since Monday for an unspecified medical matter, the Pentagon said late Friday, without detailing why he was being treated or why it kept his hospital stay secret all week.
Austin, who is 70, sits just below President Joe Biden at the top of the chain of command of the U.S. military, and his duties require him being available at a moment’s notice to respond to any manner of national security crises.
The Pentagon did not say whether Austin ever lost consciousness before or after he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Jan. 1, or the extent to which his duties were assumed by his deputy, Kathleen Hicks.
Those duties include being ready and available to respond to an incoming nuclear attack.
The Pentagon said Austin suffered “complications following a recent elective medical procedure,” but declined to say what that procedure was or what complications he suffered.
“He is recovering well and is expecting to resume his full duties today,” Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder, the top Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement Friday.
Just a day earlier, Ryder held a televised news briefing that conveyed the sense of business as usual at the Pentagon, offering Austin’s condolences to ally Japan following its New Year’s Day earthquake, for example.
But the past week has been anything but normal for the Pentagon, with U.S. troops in the Middle East wrestling with the regional fallout from the unfolding Israel-Hamas war and carrying out a U.S. retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday.
The Pentagon Press Association, in a letter to Pentagon officials, criticized the Defense Department’s secrecy, saying that Austin was a public figure who had no claim to medical privacy in such a situation.
“At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader,” it wrote.
Reuters correspondent Phil Stewart is a member of the association’s board of directors.
The Pentagon Press Association letter noted that even U.S. presidents disclose when they must delegate duties due to medical procedures.
The way the Defense Department handled Austin’s hospitalization stands in contrast to how the State Department dealt with then-Secretary of State Colin Powell’s prostate surgery on Dec. 15, 2003.
The State Department spokesperson at that time issued a statement in the morning making public that Powell, a retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and would remain there for several days before returning home.
It also said Powell would be on a reduced schedule while he recovered from the operation. The State Department’s spokesperson at the time, Richard Boucher, then offered details on Powell’s surgery in his daily briefing.
Boucher, contacted by Reuters on Friday, said the key question regarding public disclosure was whether Austin was under anesthesia or was incapacitated.
“Was there any moment in the process where he could not function as secretary of defense?” he asked. “If you are up and walking around and have your information and you have your aides in the next room and you can make split-second decisions . . . then there is probably not a public necessity to disclose.
“The only necessity is if you are going to be conked out,” he added.
The Pentagon has not yet answered that question.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati warned Friday of Lebanon being dragged into a regional war as the ongoing violence and conflict in the region is escalating.
Mikati made the remarks in a phone call with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, according to a statement from the Lebanese Council of Ministers.
“The expansion of violence and conflict in the region will have dire consequences on Lebanon and neighboring countries,” Mikati told his Qatari counterpart, underscoring the need for the international community to act immediately to stop Israeli violations of international laws.
The Israeli army on Friday intensified air strikes on several southern Lebanese villages, with one of them hitting a Lebanese army’s military site, causing only material damage, according to Lebanese military sources.
The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the Israeli forces fired about 120 shells on dozens of villages and towns along Lebanon’s southern border, destroying five houses and damaging 25 others.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out attacks using Burkan missiles on several Israeli sites, including Dhahira, Motella, Kiryat Shmona, Al-Marj, and Birkat Risha, in addition to spy equipment and a gathering of Israeli soldiers at the Al-Manara settlement. It confirmed the attacks had caused casualties, without specifying.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing increased tension since Oct. 8, 2023, after the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel in support of the Hamas attack on Israel the previous day, prompting Israel to respond by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon.
The confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have so far killed 202 people on the Lebanese side, including 147 Hezbollah members and 35 civilians, according to Lebanese security sources.
hibiny.ru: Another civilization has been found under centuries—old snow – global warming has revealed secrets to archaeologists.
Archaeologists have studied images of the icy surface of Antarctica and made a discovery, reports trendymen.ru . They saw ancient ruins opening up from under a layer of snow and ice. Global…
If he’s not going to let two UK minesweepers through his straits, can he at least supply two of his own? 🤷♀️https://t.co/QFzJMUjD7s pic.twitter.com/3Vb7lYRJ4g
— princesspoopslilsis (@VanityGenocide) January 5, 2024